How deep the grinder goes decides how much stone the floor shows.
That is how Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia, the industry body, explains a honed floor.
The finishes, from trowelled to sealed
An old floor on top
South Australia counts floor tiles among the bonded asbestos products common in homes, so an old floor is a question to answer before the grinder arrives.
Steel-trowelled
The plain finish: steel trowelling is usually chosen when a basic flat, smooth floor is wanted.
Burnished
Hard-wearing and lustrous, usually chosen where no trowel marks may show.
Lightly honed
A shallow grind gives a smooth, matt face: the sand typically shows, and perhaps the tops of the larger stones.
Honed to the stones
To show the most stone, the industry body’s data sheet puts the grind at roughly half as deep as the biggest stones are across.
Polished
More passes with ever finer abrasives bring up a lustre, and it is the stone, more than the cement around it, that takes the shine.
Sealed
Last comes a sealer, so the floor resists stains and is easier to clean.
Ground dry: dust
Safe Work Australia names grinding and polishing among the processes that make respirable crystalline silica, a dust that can do lasting harm to the lungs.
What dust does grinding make?What happens in the rest of the house?
Ground wet: slurry
In South Australia, the EPA’s rule for concrete work is that none of its residue or waste may reach the stormwater.
SafeWork NSW’s code describes grinding done either dry, with extraction on the tool, or wet, depending on the result wanted and the conditions.
Six guides, in the order the work goes
- Which finish, and how deep does it go?The finishes the industry body describes, from trowelled to sealed, and what decides how the floor looks.
- How is a floor ground and polished?Wet and dry grinding as three regulators describe them, how dust and slurry are cleared, and slip resistance on stairs, landings and ramps.
- What if an old floor is on top?What old coverings may hold, what they can leave on the slab, and each state’s and territory’s rule on taking them up.
- What dust does grinding make?Why concrete counts as a silica material, and the limit set for a worker’s air.
- What happens in the rest of the house?Settled dust, how it is cleaned up, and who the workplace duty reaches.
- Where does the water go, and when may it be noisy?Three states’ rules for slurry and stormwater, and the hours each of the three sets for power tools, with the work each covers.
This is a plain-language guide published by Dotto. It is general information. Every rule is stated for the state or national body that makes it, and every finish is named as the industry body’s description.
If the old floor holds asbestos
“It is not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself.” That is the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency, on its page for householders and home renovators. In some places the law goes further. In the Australian Capital Territory any removal needs a licensed removalist, unless it is part of minor routine maintenance or other minor work. In Queensland a home owner must be trained before taking out more than 10 square metres of non-friable material, and only a removalist holding a Class A licence may remove friable material. The same agency says all asbestos waste has to be taken to a landfill licensed for it.
What each state and territory allows a household to remove, and the rest of the rules